5. Roppongi 3K & Rocky Romero Vs. Davey Boy Smith, Vance Archer & Takashi Iizuka
NJPW
Kevin Kelly kicked off the broadcast noting that the announcers were "flying blind" for this year's Korakuen Hall card, with nothing announced for the broadcast other than the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Titles set up the previous evening.
The unpredictability was further summarised in an anecdote Kelly told about Rocky Romero's own pre-show confusion for the night ahead. The Kelly/Romero/Chris Charlton trio was one of the best commentary combos of 2018, and fortunately formed part of New Year Dash's audio arrangement two matches after the Suzuki-gun group smashed the sh*t out of the CHAOS members in the opener.
The opening clash was only as good as it needed to be, but the crowd were ready with the pops for Iizuka's head-munching and Killer Elite Squad's kick-punching. On the babyface side, Sho and Yo were dynamic as usual in the closing stretch too - NJPW owes it to the duo to make good on their consistency in 2019, particularly with The Young Bucks likely to depart.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back almost 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
